A 13-year-old Nantwich boy saved the life of his firefighter dad following an incident at sea off Anglesea.

Joe Rowlands of Snowcrest Place was kayaking in Ynys Dulas off Lligwy beach, Anglesey with 50-year-old dad Paul on Thursday February 22 when they capsized about a mile from shore.

The firefighter righted the kayak several times but each time it capsized. Eventually he turned it over and asked Joe to sit on top, planning to get on himself, but the kayak wouldn’t hold the weight of two.

Paul then planned to stay in the water and kick his way to the shore, dragging the kayak with his son on back to dry land - but despite being extremely fit and active they realised after what seemed like half an hour that they hadn’t moved.

Paul, who is a station manager with Cheshire Fire & Rescue Service, said: “It’s at this point that I realised our only chance of survival was to leave the craft and swim to a rock that was sticking out of the sea and approximately half way between us and the shoreline, which was some half a mile away.

“I was just thinking about keeping Joe safe at that moment in time and knew we needed to rescue ourselves and quickly. Although the sea was calm that day, it was extremely cold.

“Joe said he thought we were going to die and his final wish was a kiss from me. Although I reassured him that we were going to be fine, the thought also crossed my mind and I literally feared for both our lives.”

They kissed each other and Paul told his son he loved him very much and they set off swimming.

Due to hypothermia and exhaustion from trying to kick the kayak to shore, Paul is aware he passed out several times along the way and at one point he saw his son on the rock in front at around 60-100m away. His last memory is thinking that Joe was safe.

With Paul dropping in and out of consciousness the 13-year-old jumped back into the sea and swam to his dad and he dragged him to the rock where he managed to get him out of the water. He then began chest compressions on his unconscious dad and has told that water gushed out of his dad’s mouth. He then did mouth to mouth, followed by more compressions with more water coming out. On the next set of mouth to mouth Paul came round.

Joe took control of the situation and urged his dad to stay awake and together they made their way from the rock to an island of rock with a disused open tower previously built for shipwrecked sailors.

There they took shelter from the cold and Joe was talking constantly to keep Paul conscious. At one point his son shouted at him telling him that he was Paul Rowlands and to pull himself together, anything to keep him from fading, even though he was frightened, scared and extremely cold himself.

Scratched and bruised from the rocks and their ordeal, the pair huddled together in the tower for shelter. Paul thought they had been there for 15 minutes when they eventually heard the coastguard arrive, but actually it was two and a half hours. They struggled out of the tower and alerted their rescuers to their location on the rock.

Paul’s wife, Julie Ann, had reported the pair missing to the coastguard. She arrived to see her husband and son being winched into a helicopter.

It was only when they were safe and warm that Paul realised exactly what his son had done for him. His own life was in danger but he did everything in his power to keep his dad from fading.

Paul added: “I would like to thank the RNLI for coming to our rescue that day. Without this resource both myself and Joe wouldn’t be here today so I can’t thank them enough. Joe also saved my life that day and was extremely courageous in a life and death situation. As a reward I bought him the phone he’d always wanted, but I know I can never really repay him for saving my life and I’m extremely proud of him.”